For years after I had an abortion, I wondered if something was wrong with me. Not because I felt unhappy or depressed or sad, but because I didn't. I'd heard and read from so many anti-choice organizations that abortion was a traumatic experience which caused women to spiral downward. But that didn't happen to me. In fact, I experienced feelings of relief in the knowledge that I wasn't going to have a baby when I wasn't ready.

As I came to discover, none of my friends or acquaintances who shared their abortion experiences with me had any trauma either. In fact, their post-abortion feelings were largely the same as mine.

Danish researchers looked at the health records of 85,000 women who had had first-trimester abortions. Those women were more likely to seek mental health treatment while they were pregnant, but didn't need more help after having the abortion. That's not surprising, says Nada Stotland, a professor of psychiatry at Rush Medical College in Chicago. She says that women considering abortion are often struggling with problems with a partner or family members.

"People have abortions often under troubled circumstances," she said. "You have an abortion because there is a problem."

What makes this study unique is that it looked at women who chose abortions and also looked at women who chose to have the baby. Stotland says this gives us a much better picture of the stresses of abortion and childbirth.

"Above all it really fairly contrasts the outcomes of abortion with the outcomes of pregnancy," she said.

The women who decided to have babies were doing great while they were pregnant. For some, that picture changed when they became mothers. Trine Munk-Olsen, the scientist who led the Danish study, says they saw a sudden spike in new mothers who needed help with severe mental disorders, including psychosis and depression after delivery.

That's true not just in Denmark. As many as 25 percent of new mothers experience post-partum depression. It's a significant public health problem. Blum says that new mothers need much more help.

So as it turns out, had I given birth instead of having an abortion I'd be much more likely to have mental health trauma.

Comments

Thank you, Carla, for your honesty. I think many women experience what you did: they don't question themselves because they chose to have an abortion, they question whether they should feel traumatized because they are told that they should. Given that 37% of women have an abortion at some point in their lives, it's logical that it is the right choice for many women and that having the procedure be safe and legal is a cornerstone of health care for women. Thank you so much for your candor and your courage.

first, Carla: thanks for the honesty. i'm sure you'll get some less positive feedback before too long, because...
2nd, your abortion will likely make anti-choice people crazy. your refusal to fit the meme undermines another one of their lies.

Aw gee Kari, I'm pretty sure Carla can handle a little teasing. But, indeed, cheers to you Carla for adding your own story to the chorus of people who also were relieved to have reproductive choice when they needed it!

Being obviously pregnant and going through all the modern experiences made me understand a bit more people's strong emotions on the topic, but I remain staunchly pro-choice. When it comes to abortion, best legislation is not to have any (except assuring it is freely accessible, of course).

Ah, but she's not crazy. She doesn't believe the fairy tales of global warming deniers. She doesn't think that preventing bullying is a bad idea. She doesn't believe that cutting the current tax rate will increase government revenue.

I could give you plenty of examples where anti-choice organizations and individuals claim that abortion causes mental health problems in females. But frankly, I'm not seeing the point. You've consistently demonstrated a lack of interest in factual information, and futility isn't my bag, Rob.

Your "patently offensive" threshold seems awfully shallow if this headline breaks the plane. The crap that passes for running headlines on the Fox News ticker on a daily basis should turn your stomach, under those circumstances.

But, I can add to your argument -- my good friend Jocelyn Warren did her dissertation research right here in Oregon debunking the myth that adolescent abortion leads to future depression. Her published study (in International Perspectives on Reproductive Health) showed there was no statistical association between adolescent abortion and subsequent depression. Because unintended pregnancy is associated with other risk factors for depression (low socio-economic status, poor parental supervision, previous abuse, etc.) anti abortion activists have claimed that abortion simply leads to depression. In fact, poverty, low academic achievement, poor parental involvement, community violence, etc., explain the depression, not the abortion. This is a common mistake among folks who aren't using higher level analytic strategies to control for the confounding variables. That's why we need academic researchers working on these questions and doing the statistical modeling and analysis that surely confounded ME.

Early chidbirth can condemn young women to their too often disadvantaged circumstances, when their non-parenting peers have more options for education/employment and longer term economic security (which also makes us happier!)

And, one the primary strategies of anti abortion advocates is to convince the public that "these poor women" need to be protected from a future of depression by having a waiting periods, requiring the viewing of an ultrasound, requiring the doctor to give in accurate information about the risk of future depression, etc. They are trying to say this is mental health issue, when their is no evidence of that whatsoever.

FWIW, if you Google "abortion trauma," you find scads of the kinds of articles Carla was talking about. Excessive literalism is just one of the ways disingenuous debaters try to dodge the issue. For everyone without an axe to grind, Carla's point was crystal clear.

And this research is going to cause a big problem for those with axes to grind....

To the Oregon Legislature:

Some large corporations pay nothing - zero - in income taxes to Oregon. Unfortunately, we don't know which ones or the specific accounting tricks and loopholes they use to avoid income taxes. It's wrong that working families pay more in income taxes to support schools and other public services than some of the largest corporations doing business in Oregon. We ask the legislature to enact corporate tax disclosure and let the public know which corporations are paying their fair share.

First Name*

Last Name*

Email Address*

Zip Code*

This petition sponsored by BlueOregon Action and Oregon Center for Public Policy. By signing, you agree to receive email updates from BlueOregon Action and Oregon Center for Public Policy about this petition and other critical issues. (You may always unsubscribe, of course.) Learn more.

To the Oregon Legislature:

Some large corporations pay nothing - zero - in income taxes to Oregon. Unfortunately, we don't know which ones or the specific accounting tricks and loopholes they use to avoid income taxes. It's wrong that working families pay more in income taxes to support schools and other public services than some of the largest corporations doing business in Oregon. We ask the legislature to enact corporate tax disclosure and let the public know which corporations are paying their fair share.

First Name*

Last Name*

Email Address*

Zip Code*

This petition sponsored by BlueOregon Action and Oregon Center for Public Policy. By signing, you agree to receive email updates from BlueOregon Action and Oregon Center for Public Policy about this petition and other critical issues. (You may always unsubscribe, of course.) Learn more.